Fairmount1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Travis Stone making an auctioneering school in St.
> Louis proud apparently!
>
> I won't make any assertions beyond the Fact that I
> wonder if some of you were at the top of your game
> when you did something for the first time for your
> job or at age 31? (EDIT: Upon re-reading I want
> to clarify I mean that he still has much to
> improve upon and understandably so at his age).
>
> Two links here---one an article on Travis Stone
> and his linemaking at Saratoga. Second a link to
> his Twitter account which includes a
> self-deprecating tweet about today's
> "performance."
>
> Be sure to watch the call of the Pharaoah Derby on
> there. At race calling, he is precise, accurate
> and right on the money in that race. Give it a
> watch and a listen. He missed one today and
> others this meet but his line making will improve
> in time.
>
> http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2016/aug/03/0803_
> maccolumn/?dgzrg
>
> https://twitter.com/TravisStone


Nobody wants to be mean to a kid. And, it is not the kid's fault. It is the NYRA's fault.

As a practical matter, the NYRA needs to understand the product IT IS PUTTING ON THE MARKETPLACE. The NYRA should be wanting to entice people to bet. It is what they are supposed to be doing. They should be making things easy for bettors to put their dollars down.

So long as the ML is being done incompetently (today's last race a perfect example), anybody whose time is limited is going to be analyzing a lot less races and betting a lot less races. My handle has gone down at least 50% since I realized the kid didn't know what he was doing.

We operate in a free country and a free marketplace. The NYRA is allowed to do whatever it wants to do. Me, I am going to bet Mountaineer on Saturday rather than the Spa. Never been tempted before to do something like this, but why not. It might be not bad. As it is, it is aggravating to have to do work that normally the track offers as a courtesy for its bettors -- If I am going to have to do this, why not do it somewhere else rather than the place that is choosing to inconvenience its own customers.

The kid seems like a nice kid. Who knows, maybe one day he will get it. However, my time is precious, and I need to make choices. The NYRA is the big leagues and it makes choices too. They should be choosing people who have already done the job elsewhere and shown they can do it rather than giving a novice a shot at the big league level. What baseball team plucks a kid out of high school and puts him on a big league roster? If such a teenager fails in the big leagues, it is not the teenager's fault, it is the club that put him in that spot who is to blame. The kid is a nice kid and none of this is about him.